Brown is pushing for the building of an alternate jet engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which would be built in at GE plant in Lynn. The junior senator is not alone among the Massachusetts delegation in pushing for engine. He's mirroring the position of his predecessor, Edward Kennedy, who believed the engine would bring a few hundred jobs to Massachusetts.

But let's recall that Brown ran as the anti-Kennedy -- a position he solidified when he voted against extending unemployment benefits foe 9,000 Massachusetts workers until he and fellow Republicans would not further unbalance the budget.

So benefits for 9,000 is bad but jobs for several hundred is better?

But even more to the point, why does the federal government need to spending billions on an alternate engine? If Pratt & Whitney, which is building the jet, can't get it right -- the presumed reason for an alternate -- why do they have the contract to build it in the first place?

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

So maybe Barack can develop some backbone and say he wants all earmarks abolished. Then see who follows his lead. He was going to bring about change in the way Washington does business and he is the leader.